{"id":838,"date":"2006-07-19T23:49:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-19T23:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maddruid.com\/wp\/?p=838"},"modified":"2006-10-09T23:27:06","modified_gmt":"2006-10-09T15:27:06","slug":"836-of-catch-22-and-democracy-in-the-mideast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/?p=838","title":{"rendered":"[836] Of catch-22 and democracy in the Mideast"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m extremely disappointed with the US support for Israel in the current crisis in Lebanon though such support is expected (tag)<\/a>. My disappointment originates from the Bush administration penchant to talk about democracy in the Mideast while their actions substantially differ from their words.<\/p>\n

In the previous Palestinian election, Hamas won fair and square but the United States and Israel – and even the European Union – refused to accept the decision of the Palestinians. In the US and Israel’s mind, democracy is only democracy if the winner is the one favorable to them. We know however that that is not democracy but rather, hypocrisy instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, while the country is trying to build a working democracy, there comes Israel to wreck everything into pieces. How do we expect a fledging nation that just got out of a civil war to build a working democracy while its neighbor illegally exercises military might on Lebanese soil?<\/p>\n

The situation is even more hypocritical considering how the US acted during the Rafik Hariri case. When the initial clues implicated Syria, the US was fast to criticize Syria and sided with Lebanon, citing democracy was under threat. However, when Israel clearly violated Lebanese ground, the US lends support to Israel instead, citing Israel has a right to exist while in fact, it’s Lebanon that is being threatened, not the former. Israel is threatening Lebanon’s right to security and thus, Israel is threatening a “startup” democracy. It’s awfully clear that the US is uninterested in nurturing democratic principles in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

In the end, the situation in the Mideast is a catch-22 scenario. The US keeps pounding on its chest, yelling the only way is democracy but at the same time, it prevents democracy from prevailing. Every time a country in the Middle East makes progress in democracy, here comes the US and Israel to undo it.<\/p>\n

If this illegal Israeli incursion into Lebanon does not stop soon, pure nationalistic thoughts will appeal to the oppressed masses. This might lead to fascism later, especially so when natural democratic progresses – not forced democracy as the one in Iraq – are being curtailed. This Israeli actions and US support will only encourage nominally democratic nations in the Mideast to regress back to autocracy.<\/p>\n

If the regression to autocracy does occur, then Israel could declare to the world that it’s the only democracy in the region. Israel will of course ignore the fact that it contributed to containment of democratic thoughts and progresses in the Mideast in the first place.<\/p>\n

\"Mohd \"Mohd \"Mohd<\/p>\n

p\/s – in the New York Times<\/a> today:<\/p>\n

Is this the price we pay for aspiring to build our democratic institutions?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m extremely disappointed with the US support for Israel in the current crisis in Lebanon though such support is expected (tag). My disappointment originates from the Bush administration penchant to talk about democracy in the Mideast while their actions substantially differ from their words. In the previous Palestinian election, Hamas won fair and square but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-disaster","category-liberty","category-politics-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}